DIY framed Vinyl

I'm working on a big project to get some awesome spiritual thoughts on my wall and I really needed some cute fillers. Cue the framed vinyl project! This is ridiculously easy, personal and versatile. I can't wait to get mine on the wall.  Please note this project is 100% easier if you or a close friend own a Cricut/Silhouette type of machine or if you have all the money in the would to buy vinyl.

What you need: Picture frames (Cheap or expensive does not matter they just need glass in them! I bought mine for $1 at walmart) Vinyl in any color you choose, scrapbook paper also in whatever color you want, and a paper cutter or sizzers. 

Step 1: choose what you want to cut out. You can do anything! Hearts, stars, initials, wedding date, birth date, child's name, etc! I choose a framed heart and the letter J since we're the Johnson family and we love each other most of the time. haha I always cut whatever I'm using on paper first before I go to vinyl. Vinyl is expensive and you don't want to waste your supply if you can help it. I also choose my scrapbook paper to make sure it would look good as a background.  

Step 2: Cut your vinyl. If you are using a Cricut I can tell you to put your needle on setting 3, speed level 1 and pressure 2 or 3 depending on the thickness of your vinyl. Mine was a 2 but my needle is also brand new. Once your Cricut is done working, pull off extra vinyl that you won't be applying to frame.

Step 3: Place your vinyl on the glass in your desired location.  For this project I didn't use transfer paper since I was just pulling the vinyl up and laying it down. Do what you choose, but just know transfer paper isn't 100% necessary, though it is helpful. 

 Step 4: Cut your scrapbook paper to the size needed. My frames were 5 x 7's so I simply cut my paper to that size. Once the paper is cut you just slide it into the frame, no glue, no mess just stick it inside. Because there is no gluing involved you can change the background paper seasonally so your decor matching whatever time of year it may be. Mine has a fall look to it but it also matches my home so double awesomeness! Good luck and happy crafting!

Here is my final work on the wall! Be sure to check out how to make the framed vases! 

DIY: State String Art!

This is something that I've been thinking about trying, but finally I made a plan and executed it. So I have wanted to make some type of memorabilia to show all the places we have lived since me and Jason were married way back on Nov. 2nd 2007. Since we're a military family we've traveled a bit in the last 6 years. We started out in Idaho, took 2 years in New York, 3 years in Okinawa Japan and now are currently hanging out in Texas!

So here we have string art. It's pretty easy, doesn't take expensive materials, and turns out fabulous!

What you need: Wood boards (I used some left over scrap wood but for a buck you can get a 5x7 thin board at Walmart, small short nails, paint (whatever color your heart desires), and cross stitch thread, I bought mine at Walmart of 30 cents. Like I said this is a very inexpensive project. If you're cutting your own wood obviously you'll be needing a few more things like a measuring tape, saw, and sandpaper.

Step 1: Use a piece of sand paper and sand your wood until there are no rough edges.

 Step 2: Pick your paint and go to town. I decided on a dark red and navy blue (it sooo does not look navy it this picture) These will be going into our patriotic room! The paint I used was left over from my pallet flag project so everything will match!

Make sure the paint is dry before you start putting your nails in! 

Step 3: Print out your state shape.  Cut these out and make sure they fit on your boards. Now you can do one of two things. You can either trace your cut out state and then nail along the traced line or you can hammer the nails into the paper. I choose the do the paper version because I didn't want trace lines on my boards, though if you used a pencil you probably wouldn't see them.

When I printed out my states I also printed small hearts. I traced the heart onto the paper and then nailed around the traced line. 

Step 4: hammer, hammer, hammer. This step takes the most patience. If you choose to keep your paper on the board just rip it off once you're finished with the nailing part. Once you've removed your paper it should look like the photo below.

Ohhhh so Pretty :)

  Step 5: Add your string. I had 44 nails along the outside and 10 on the inside so each heart nail is connected to 4ish outside nails. Tie your unwound string onto any starting point and start wrapping your nails. I wrapped each about 5 times before moving onto the next nail. Go all the way around and Presto, you have mad a fun memento to remember your home state or any place you've ever been to.

All done and ready to hang on the wall! :)

Pallet Flag

So I've been working on making our computer room/ craft room very patriotic in honor of my husband's service in the United States Marine Corps.  So I really wanted to buy a large framed flag to use as my center piece. Have you priced those flags or even framed prints??? They are easily over $150, which is way out of my budget. So then I moved onto Etsy to look into pallet flags and again for the size I wanted they were around $100, but while browsing Etsy I decided I don't need to buy a flag, I'm gonna go crazy and make my own! So I ran across the road where they are building a house grabbed a pallet and some fence posts and went to work! 

What you need for this project: 1 pallet or wood that is about 4 inches wide and not very thick. Nails, saw, sander or sand paper, measuring tape. to decorate you need tape, red, white and blue paint several paint brushes.   

1.Wood- Most pallets are not placed this close together so I pulled mine apart and re-nailed it. The length of the pallet boards were 32 inches so I only had to cut a few of my other wood pieces so they would match up. My flag measured 32 x 20 inches which is not a real flag measurement but it's close. You can play with these numbers depending on how big or small you want your flag to be. 

2. Measuring - You need to find out how big your stripes will be, and how big the blue area of the flag is. Stripes aren't too difficult. Whatever the height of your flag is divide that by 13. Try to be as exact as possible! This is what mine looked like. My flag was 20.25 inches high divided by 13 =1.55 inches or on a tape measure that would be 1 9/16 inches. Get out a calculator  or enlist your boyfriends, husbands, guy next door or dad's help. I'm not ashamed I asked! 

The height of the blue was simple to measure, it is exactly 7 stripes. In my case 10.85 inches. For the width I went to a flag dimension website and it confused the crap out of my and I finally decided I would add an inch on to the height and round it to 12 inches so my stars would be evenly spaced. Here is the website if you feel like having a headache. ;)  http://www.usflag.org/flagspecs.html

3. Taping - Using masking take or painters tape use your measurements to tape out the blue section and your red stripes only! Remember don't round on your stripe measurements or your bottom stripe will be bigger than the rest! Taping takes patience but it's worth it to take your time. Push down on all your edges so the paint doesn't bleed. 

4. Painting- Makes sure you cover your wood generously! And be patient with your paint drying. You don't want to pull the tape off too early! 

This is what your flag will look like after adding your blue and red paint! 

I waited a whole day before I took the tape on the red off then re-taped for my white stripes. Make sure when you put your tape on your board for the white stripes that your overlap the red by just a tiny bit. This makes nice crisp lines!  I also waited a day for the white paint. 

5- Stars - My stars are 1 inch in size. While I was waiting for my paint to dry I used my trusty Cricut to cut out a stencil so my stars would be evenly spaced. I loved using the cricut for this purpose but 1 inch is the smallest my stars could be and therefore if you count on my flag there are only 39. I needed two more rows, but this is a craft project and I settled for cute even stars and decided to pretend we kicked a few states out of the country. haha  You can buy a star stencil at your local craft store or be creative with making your stars. 

Here are the stars finished. I used a very fine paint brush to touch up any paint that went outside the stencil. 

 At this point you can leave you flag as is but I took some sandpaper and ruffed up the edges and paint to make it look more rustic. To hang it on the wall I placed two screws on the braces 6-7 inches from the top and used a screw driver to put these in the board. Then I attached a wire to the screws and mounted it to the wall.

Finished!